150-vehicle pileup on foggy Texas highway leaves 2 dead, 100 hurt

A series of massive Thanksgiving morning pileups involving up to 150 vehicles in southeast Texas has left two dead and as many as 100 injured, authorities told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

It was one of the busiest driving times on one of the highest-traffic days of the year, and Deputy Rod Carroll of the Jefferson County Sheriff's office said heavy fog and high speeds probably caused the three separate pileups to begin on Interstate 10 -- in both directions -- about 8 a.m.

“Driving out there, I couldn’t see 10 feet in front of my car," Carroll told The Times. "I still had people trying to pass me and I had headlights and sirens on.”

Media photos from the scene showed pile after pile of vehicles, shredded FedEx trailers and tractor-trailers rammed into smaller vehicles.

Carroll said two people died when their SUV crashed into the cars in front of them, and then a tractor-trailer rammed them from behind and ran over their vehicle.

“It was definitely a chain-reaction accident," Carroll said of the pileups, which sent up to 100 people to five area hospitals.

Officials cleared westbound Interstate 10 for traffic a few hours after the accident, but eastbound Interstate 10 remained shut down Thursday afternoon as officials cleared the scene. Carroll said some of the tractor-trailers had spilled their hauls and needed more time to clean up their lost loads.